Aħrax Tower
The Aħrax Tower , also called Torri tal-Armier , White Tower , Ta 'Ħoslien , Ta' Eslien and Torre Biancha , is a former watchtower near Mellieħa in the northeast of the island of Malta . An artillery position was built next to the tower between 1715 and 1720 . The plant is a Grade 1 building since 1995 listed building .
history
The tower was built in 1658 under the reign of the Grand Master Martin de Redin as the sixth of the thirteen De Redin Towers , an inscription that still survives testifies to the construction. The construction costs were 589 Scudi . He stands on a hill between the Dahlet ix-Xmajjar and Dahlet ta 'Eslien (or Ħoslien) and oversaw the Gozokanal . He was armed with two cannons, four muskets, sixteen cannon balls, musket balls and ten Maltese rotolo (about 8 kg) of black powder . The Università as the government agency of Malta at the time of the order's rule, paid the wages for the bombardier and three foot soldiers.
During the British rule over Malta, the palace is said to have served as the governor's summer residence.
Building
The original tower consisted of two floors. The ground floor was used as a storage room for ammunition, while the upper floor served as quarters for the commander and the tower crew. The outer wall is slightly inclined in the lower area.
The roof of the lower floor is held by three stone arches. The ceiling of the upper floor is designed as a vault so that the heavy guns on the roof above could be moved and fired. At one corner of the flat roof there is a small tower to protect the guards, the roof is surrounded by a parapet.
Access was through the upper floor via a wooden or rope ladder . From there one reached the basement via a ladder and the roof via a spiral staircase. On the east side of the tower there is a machicolation as a relic of medieval fortress architecture. While in the Wignacourt Towers such warehouses can be found more often, they are absent from all other De Redin Towers.
Around 1720 a log house was built next to the tower as an additional fortification system, this has been preserved. A passage to the basement of the tower was created so that both rooms inside can be used separately. The stairs to the upper floor are only accessible from the log cabin via an external staircase. In March 1918, the tower was handed over to the Naval Authority , which possibly operated a hydrophone station there in order to identify enemy submarines .
In June 2009, ownership of the tower and the surrounding land was transferred to the Mellieħa municipality. In November 2016, the municipality signed a ten-year lease agreement with Dín l-Art Ħelwa , who has since taken care of the property and is carrying out reconstruction work. It is planned to house an educational institution of the organization there after the restoration.
literature
- Stephen C. Spiteri : Fortresses of the Cross. Hospitaller Military Architecture 1136–1798 . Heritage Interpretation Services, Malta 1994, ISBN 99909-965-3-9 , pp. 498 .
Web links
- Stanley Farrugia Randon: L-Aħrax Tower. In: Heritage Sites, Heritage Sites managed by Din l-Art Helwa. Dín l-Art Ħelwa , April 14, 2017 (English).
- Torri tal-Armier / Aħrax Tower and Battery (Updated). (PDF; 3.0 MB) In: National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands. Sovrintendenza tal-Patrimonju Kulturale, March 30, 2012(English).
Coordinates: 35 ° 59 ′ 44 ″ N , 14 ° 21 ′ 52 ″ E